If you’re planning on the big banks to be part of your UK FY16 number, you’d better be fast on your feet - and be prepared to negotiate some kind of revenue split with your European subsidiaries. That’s if they’re still speaking to you after your country effectively tanked their pensions, of course.

So, if Q4 and year-end looks like it’s going to tank (don’t mention the tanks!) and there’s not a whole load you can do about the external factors that have made this inevitable, what should you be doing over the next few days?

Firstly, one of the clear lessons from Brexit is that just because you think you know what your people are thinking, doesn’t mean you have a clue.

Everyone was so sure that Britain would remain in the EU that politicians stopped listening to the populace and starting shouting at each other instead. Cue a complete misreading of the way the vote would go, from cloth-eared hirsute politicians, to the financial markets and other dodgy gambling types, right down to the swivel-eyed lads in the pub.

Takeaway number 1 – listen more carefully to your staff – they may not be thinking what you think they are.

Secondly, shouting isn’t an advanced form of communication (even when you’re trying to convince a non-native English speaker.)

Nightmarish guesses - complete with monsters from the deep - were used to persuade in the name of “Project Fear”, as the Bremainers ground out their doomsday scenarios.

Meanwhile, blatantly bad numbers were emblazoned onto the sides of buses, alongside promises that were always going to be impossible to keep by the Brexiteers.

While these were the most recent manifestations of political communication, the reality is that the majority of the UK population was not only kept in ignorance, they were deliberately so badly educated that they couldn’t think through the problem for themselves.

Most Brits simply didn’t believe that leaving the EU would present the UK with a problem, let alone the EU or the world economy. They thought it was an opportunity to show how disaffected they were.

The proof of this is that the margin of victory in the actual referendum was 1.6m Brexiteers, yet 3.6m have since signed a petition to have another go - so they can get the right answer next time around. (Multiple choice with only two answers and a year to find out the correct one is a bit difficult for most Brits, apparently.)

And on Friday, the most asked question on Google UK was “what are the effects of Britain exiting the EU?” followed by “what is the EU?” This was eight hours after the polls had closed!

So takeaway number 2 – communication is important, but education is even more so. Even when your competitors and prospects are using lies damned lies and statistics to refute your sales plans, with sufficient education you can identify the issues and confound your competition.

And while you’re on the subject of education, I suggest you sign up for German language lessons. Inside five years, the language of European commerce will no longer be English – the EU only did that as a favour to the semi-literate Brits and now that we’ve repudiated their way of life, you might find they might want to take a less arbitrary approach to communication.

Since, apparently, there is only one way of speaking German – the right way, naturally – there is less chance for disastrous miscommunication.

And if there’s one thing we need a damn sight less of right now, and that’s disastrous miscommunication, even in a Monday sales meeting.

PS – with the pound in effective free-fall against the dollar today, UK subsidiaries of US companies need to think how their internal rates of exchange might stymie their year-end close – suggest you check in with your finance controller to see how this affects you!